Reducing a fleet's reliance on missiles.

[Brian Neumann]

One thing I have found beam armed fighters good for is basically a maned weapon pod for defending a fixed location.  A fighter with an any sized engine a little bit of maintenance can be left for a really long time guarding a point (ie jump point or planet) and they will be able to fire really quickly when an enemy comes through.  Also because of their small size they actually work fairly well as point defense vs missiles or fighters.  A fighter with a 12cm laser has a pretty good chance of killing another fighter on its first hit at close range.  As close range is what you are likely to get with a jump point assault this works well.

Brian

[Arwyn]

I have found that Gauss armed fighters for WP defense are pretty nasty.

I was using 10 of these per squadron, along with sensors from a large well armored defense station/hanger.

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F-5 Mako class Fighter    250 tons     6 Crew     52.5 BP      TCS 5  TH 16.8  EM 0
9600 km/s     Armour 2-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2
Annual Failure Rate: 5%    IFR: 0.1%    Maint Capacity 13 MSP    Max Repair 14 MSP    Est Time: 5.6 Years

Rolls Royce E740 MPD Fighter Drive (1)    Power 48    Fuel Use 6000%    Signature 16.8    Armour 0    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres    Range 0.6 billion km   (17 hours at full power)

Gauss Cannon R3-33 (1x3)    Range 30,000km     TS: 9600 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 33%     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Durant Indigo/1 Fighter Cannon Control (1)    Max Range: 48,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
Two to four squadrons on a warp point shredded enemy ships coming through. I was seeing a ship die about every 10 seconds with these guys attacking, the NPR armor was fairly light though, 4 or 5.

[Charlie Beeler]

I have found that Gauss armed fighters for WP defense are pretty nasty.

I was using 10 of these per squadron, along with sensors from a large well armored defense station/hanger.

Code: [Select]

F-5 Mako class Fighter    250 tons     6 Crew     52.5 BP      TCS 5  TH 16.8  EM 0
9600 km/s     Armour 2-3     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 0     PPV 2
Annual Failure Rate: 5%    IFR: 0.1%    Maint Capacity 13 MSP    Max Repair 14 MSP    Est Time: 5.6 Years

Rolls Royce E740 MPD Fighter Drive (1)    Power 48    Fuel Use 6000%    Signature 16.8    Armour 0    Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 5,000 Litres    Range 0.6 billion km   (17 hours at full power)

Gauss Cannon R3-33 (1x3)    Range 30,000km     TS: 9600 km/s     Accuracy Modifier 33%     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Durant Indigo/1 Fighter Cannon Control (1)    Max Range: 48,000 km   TS: 16000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes
Two to four squadrons on a warp point shredded enemy ships coming through. I was seeing a ship die about every 10 seconds with these guys attacking, the NPR armor was fairly light though, 4 or 5.

How would the fare against an oponent that uses squadron transit with a jump radius that allows them to recover from jumpblindness before your fighters can reach attack range?

[deoved]

How would the fare against an oponent that uses squadron transit with a jump radius that allows them to recover from jumpblindness before your fighters can reach attack range?

But you can horde fighters, they are expendable, nothing more than flesh and steel! If Steve only allows us to use kamikaze fighters...

[Brian Neumann]

But you can horde fighters, they are expendable, nothing more than flesh and steel! If Steve only allows us to use kamikaze fighters...

Actually it is not that easy to horde your fighters.  The only place that will keep them from running up time on the maintenance clock is in a hanger bay.  If they are just at a planet that doesn't do it, even if there is more than enough maintenance facilities available.  This means that you can't just produce fighters and have them available whenever you need them.  You need a hanger bay and the installation it is in is going to require minerals to maintain.

Brian

[Arwyn]

Thats correct. I have defense stations that are nothing more than hangers, maintenance  and missile defense. They are armored heavily to take point blank missile shots. I have additional stations that sit back at range and provide either beam defense up close, or missiles at range.

The way the AI selects targets right now, they enemy usually goes for the stations first, letting the fighters close. Turrets tend the be the biggest issue. Short range lasers/mesons/Gauss tend to open up on the fighters as they have no other targets, assuming there are no missiles inbound.

The big advantage is that the fighters can sit in their stations for very long periods of time and launch instantly. I can also crank out a couple a month due to the low build points required, making them pretty cost efficient.

They are not perfect, but for that specific role of jump point defense, they do a good job and are cheap.

A few stations, some fighters and a chunk of mines, and I can pretty much close down a warp point to squadron transits.

[deoved]

Actually it is not that easy to horde your fighters.  The only place that will keep them from running up time on the maintenance clock is in a hanger bay.  If they are just at a planet that doesn't do it, even if there is more than enough maintenance facilities available.  This means that you can't just produce fighters and have them available whenever you need them.  You need a hanger bay and the installation it is in is going to require minerals to maintain.

Brian

Actualy i did not notice maintance clock rising while they are in hangars on carrier vessel.

[Arwyn]

How would the fare against an opponent that uses squadron transit with a jump radius that allows them to recover from jumpblindness before your fighters can reach attack range?

By themselves, poorly. I coordination with other defenses, rather well. It depends on the jump range. I had an NPR who had a pretty big jump radius, which was playing hell with my existing defenses that were based on mines. I had to move everything back from the warp point, which made concentration a challenge.

I built some smaller stations that only had a squadron each, that gave me at least one squadron within distance, and two others that could close quickly. In conjunction with bigger mines with longer range missiles, it works reasonable well.

[Brian Neumann]

Actualy i did not notice maintance clock rising while they are in hangars on carrier vessel.

That is the only place that the maintenance clock will not rise.  Anywhere else that is not a boat bay, or hanger bay and they will be adding time to the mainenance clock.

Brian